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Move some air and rattle the rafters. More than just bone-shakin' bottom end, today's Bass Amps deliver a full tonal range of tone to capture every note, every nuance, every accent, and each harmonic. Find the tone you crave and the power you need to create a flawless performance with a new bass amp from American Musical Supply.
American Musical Supply is excited to be your stop for bass guitar amps, including a wide selection of combo amps, amp heads, speaker cabinets, stacks, and bass preamp pedals. We offer True 0% interest payment plans - applying is easy. Use your own debit or credit card, enjoy fast and free shipping, and add a bass amp to your creative setup.
We’re stocked with bass amps from top brands including Fender, Ampeg, Hartke, Orange, Peavey, Darkglass Electronics, Phil Jones, and many more! Remember, we offer the lowest prices on today’s hottest bass amps and have the size, style, wattage, and configuration you’re looking for!
We make buying a bass amp quick and easy - in-stock items that are ordered before 5PM will ship out the same day! (see our Shipping Information Page for more details) Do you have questions about bass amps and want to know which model would be best for you? Give us a call at 800-319-9043 - our experts are standing by.
So, you have your trusty electric bass in hand, but you’re looking for just the right type of amp. What different types of bass amps are out there?
Just like their guitar amp siblings, bass amps come in a wide range of options. Bass amps and cabinets have been designed to showcase a specific range of low-end frequencies that are unique to the electric bass. There are models powered by vacuum tubes (also called ‘valves’) that continue in the legendary sonic tradition of vintage amps. Tube amps create warm, rich, full-bodied tone that evolves tremendously when the gain is increased. The natural distortion that occurs is the amp’s calling-card and this type of ‘tube tone’ is highly sought after by bassists. Solid-state amps use electronic transistors in place to tubes to power your tone, bringing you a more consistent signal with more headroom at all volumes. They are durable, while also weighing less and costing less than their tube amp counterparts. There are also feature-rich digital modeling amps that have been loaded with a wide variety of presets and effects – the internal library has been sampled, designed, and programmed from a wide variety of device sources. Brand engineers capture the characteristics of a number of amps, speaker cabinets, and effects – both vintage and modern – so you can enjoy the benefits of having a versatile bass rig packed into one great amp! Digital modeling amps often include USB connectivity, Bluetooth connectivity, and there are even models that are Wi-Fi enabled. This allows you access additional tone databases from mobile apps and your computer.
The next question you might be asking is, “Should I use a Bass Combo or the combination of a Bass Head and Bass Cabinet?”
Well, a Bass Guitar Combo Amp has everything contained in a single unit – simply connect to power, plug in your bass, turn it on, and you’re ready to go! First and foremost, the bass combo is all about ease-of-use, and that means a much easier time during transport, setup, and performance. As a rule-of-thumb, the small more budget-friendly practice models are always combo amps. In fact, a vast majority of bass amps used by hobbyists, gigging weekend warriors, and professionals in small and medium-sized venues are combos as well – the output power is plenty strong!
That being said, there are a number of circumstances that call for more power and the freedom to customize your sound ever further. A Bass Guitar Amp Head is the power section that drives signal to an attached cabinet. The Bass Guitar Amp Cabinet contains all of the speaker elements in a separate enclosure, and they are often much larger with more output potential. Simply put, you can’t have the head without the cab. It’s also common for bassists to use the head/cabinet option in the studio, often preferring the sound to that of an all-in-one combo. It is said to be a more open and unhindered sound, because a speaker cab isn’t dealing with other components taking up the extra space. Each manufacturer also implements certain design elements and uses certain materials in the manufacturing of their speaker cabinets. That means the true tinkerers will experiment by mixing and matching heads and speakers from different brands for an even wider range of sound possibilities, all with the proper power requirements taken into consideration of course!
